Urban search and rescue teams often need to create openings (called “breaching”) in rigid structures, such as reinforced concrete walls, to reach victims in buildings after a disaster, such as an earthquake or a hurricane. To facilitate the search and rescue effort, breaching equipment is preferably portable, easy to operate, and rapid in effect while not destabilizing the building structure or threatening injury to operators or victims.
Conventional techniques for breaching concrete walls include gasoline and hydraulic powered diamond chain saws, gasoline and hydraulic powered circulars saws, diamond wire saws, large bore corers, hydraulic/pneumatic/electric impact tools, water jets, and hydraulic splitters. These techniques all can typically require several hours to breach a thick, heavily reinforced concrete wall, and the equipment may not be portable in some instances. Military teams also use explosives to quickly breach walls, but this is dangerous to victims and can destabilize the structure. Lasers have also been proposed for breaching applications, but size, safety, and power constraints generally make them infeasible.
Accordingly, devices and methods are needed that address one or more of the aforementioned shortcomings of conventional reinforced concrete breaching devices and methods.
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